Electronic integrator for gyro rate output voltages

Circuit which integrates spacecraft gyro output voltages to provide analog position signals has been developed. Accurate integration is provided by all solid state system which uses no choppers and takes advantage of commercially available flight qualified components

Q-based design equations for resonant metamaterials and experimental validation

Practical design parameters of resonant metamaterials, such as loss tangent, are derived in terms of the quality factor $Q$ of the resonant effective medium permeability or permittivity. Through electromagnetic simulations of loop-based resonant particles, it is also shown that the $Q$ of the effective medium response is essentially equal to the $Q$ of an individual resonant particle. Thus, by measuring the $Q$ of a single fabricated metamaterial particle, the effective permeability or permittivity of a metamaterial can be calculated simply and accurately without requiring complex simulations, fabrication, or measurements. Experimental validation shows that the complex permeability analytically estimated from the measured $Q$ of a single fabricated self-resonant loop agrees with the complex permeability extracted from $S$ parameter measurements of a metamaterial slab to better than 20%. This $Q$ equivalence reduces the design of a metamaterial to meet a given loss constraint to the simpler problem of the design of a resonant particle to meet a specific $Q$ constraint. This analysis also yields simple analytical expressions for estimating the loss tangent of a planar loop magnetic metamaterial due to ohmic losses. It is shown that $\tan \delta \approx 0.001$ is a strong lower bound for magnetic loss tangents for frequencies not too far from 1 GHz. The ohmic loss of the metamaterial varies inversely with the electrical size of the metamaterial particle, indicating that there is a loss penalty for reducing the particle size at a fixed frequency

Inclusion of seasonal variation in river system microbial communities and phototroph activity increases environmental relevance of laboratory chemical persistence tests

Regulatory tests assess crop protection product environmental fate and toxicity before approval for commercial use. Although globally applied laboratory tests can assess biodegradation, they lack environmental complexity. Microbial communities are subject to temporal and spatial variation, but there is little consideration of these microbial dynamics in the laboratory. Here, we investigated seasonal variation in the microbial composition of water and sediment from a UK river across a two-year time course and determined its effect on the outcome of water-sediment (OECD 308) and water-only (OECD 309) biodegradation tests, using the fungicide isopyrazam. These OECD tests are performed under dark conditions, so test systems incubated under non-UV light:dark cycles were also included to determine the impact on both inoculum characteristics and biodegradation. Isopyrazam degradation was faster when incubated under non-UV light at all collection times in water-sediment microcosms, suggesting that phototrophic communities can metabolise isopyrazam throughout the year. Degradation rate varied seasonally between inoculum collection times only in microcosms incubated in the light, but isopyrazam mineralisation to 14CO2 varied seasonally under both light and dark conditions, suggesting that heterotrophic communities may also play a role in degradation. Bacterial and phototroph communities varied across time, but there was no clear link between water or sediment microbial composition and variation in degradation rate. During the test period, inoculum microbial community composition changed, particularly in non-UV light incubated microcosms. Overall, we show that regulatory test outcome is not influenced by temporal variation in microbial community structure; however, biodegradation rates from higher tier studies with improved environmental realism, e.g. through addition of non-UV light, may be more variable. These data suggest that standardised OECD tests can provide a conservative estimate of pesticide persistence end points and that additional tests including non-UV light could help bridge the gap between standard tests and field studies

Adoption of dynamic simulation for an energy performance rating tool for Korean residential buildings : EDEM-SAMSUNG

Currently, there is a high emphasis on reducing the energy consumption and carbon emissions of buildings worldwide. Korea is facing an emerging issue of energy savings in buildings in perspective of new green economic policy. In this context, various policy measures including the energy efficiency ratings for buildings are being implemented for domestic and non-domestic buildings. In practice, design teams tend to prefer easy to use assessment tools to optimise energy performance and carbon ratings while they are concerned about calculation accuracy and the accurate representation of the dynamics involved associated with the characteristics of Korean residential buildings. This paper presents an assessment tool, named ‘EDEM-Samsung’ that aims to address these challenges for Korean residential apartments, which often encounter complex design issues. EDEM-Samsung is a tool that enables users to make rapid decisions identifying the effect of design parameter changes on energy and carbon ratings with an effective user interface and without compromising accuracy. This paper describes the architecture and functionalities of the tool, and the advantages offered to Korean designers

The contribution of nitrate respiration to the energy budget of the symbiotic clam Lucinoma aequizonata: a calorimetric study

Heat production and nitrate respiration rates were measured simultaneously in the gill tissue of Lucinoma aequizonata. This marine bivalve contains chemoautotrophic, intracellular, bacterial symbionts in its gill tissue. The symbionts show constitutive anaerobic respiration, using nitrate instead of oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor. An immediate increase in heat production was observed after the addition of nitrate to the perfusion medium of the calorimeter and this was accompanied by the appearance of nitrite in the effluent sea water. The nitrate-stimulated heat output was similar under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, which is consistent with the constitutive nature of nitrate respiration. The amount of heat released was dependent on the concentration of nitrate in the perfusion medium. At nitrate concentrations between 0.5 and 5 mmol l-1, the total heat production was increased over twofold relative to unstimulated baseline values. A mean (±s.e.m.) experimental enthalpy of -130±22.6 kJ mol-1 nitrite (N=13) was measured for this concentration range

Pragmatism, Education, and the Problem of Pluralism

The concept of pluralism is of central importance in contemporary moral and political education, where a crucial aim is to promote acceptance of the life choices of others and to teach tolerance towards diversity of values. However, this promotion of pluralism suffers from two immediate difficulties. Firstly, the concept of pluralism has proved somewhat elusive, and it is far from clear that its various uses are congruent. Secondly, there is a long-standing criticism against ethical and political pluralism which maintains that pluralist views are difficult if not impossible to defend without succumbing to dreaded relativism. In this article, I will firstly distinguish an educationally interesting form of pluralism and then, drawing from thinkers in the tradition of philosophical pragmatism, attempt to meet the criticism that such pluralism has no interesting philosophical defense.Peer reviewe

Polarisation observables in lepton antilepton to proton antiproton reactions including lepton mass

General expressions, including the lepton mass, for the spin averaged differential cross section for the annihilation reaction lepton antilepton to proton antiproton are given, as well as general formulae for the single and double spin asymmetries in the centre of mass frame. In particular we discuss the single spin asymmetry, normal to the scattering plane, which measures the relative phase difference between nucleon electromagnetic form factors $G_E$ and $G_M$. Recent experimental investigations of these form factors in the space and time like region are reviewed. It is thought that measurements of the phase of these form factors will provide fundamental information on the internal nucleon structure. The phases between $G_E$ and $G_M$ are accessible through polarisation observables measured in the antiproton proton to lepton antilepton reaction, or in its time reversed process.Comment: 14 pages, to be submitted to EPJ

Metabolism of gemmules from the freshwater sponge Eunapius fragilis during diapause and post-diapause states

Post-diapause gemmules of the freshwater sponge Eunapius fragilis remained quiescent when maintained at 5°C. Germination occurred within 48 to 72 h following warming to 20°-23°C, culminating with the emergence of a new sponge from the collagenous capsule. Both heat dissipation and oxygen consumption climbed steadily during germination and eventually reached 600% of the starting values. By comparison, energy flow was much lower over the same period of time in diapausing gemmules, clearly demonstrating metabolic depression during diapause. The calorimetric:respirometric (CR) ratio increased significantly from -354 kJ/mol O2 to -541 kJ/mol O2 between hours 3.5 and 56.5 of germination, with an average value across this period of about -495 kJ/mol O2. The low CR ratio at hour 12.5 (-374 ± 21; ± 1 SE, n = 3) was statistically below the oxycaloric equivalent, which suggests that gemmules may have experienced hypoxia during the more than 3 months of storage at 5°C prior to experiments. The increase in metabolism during germination could be blocked by perfusing the gemmules with nitrogen- saturated medium (nominally oxygen free). Developing gemmules were able to survive oxygen limitation for several hours at least; during that time energy flow was depressed to 6% of normoxic values. During germination, the range of values was 3.5 to 4.0 nmol/mg protein for ATP, 0.2 to 0.4 nmol/mg protein for ADP, and 0.5 to 0.8 nmol/mg protein for AMP. Because ATP was high even before gemmules were warmed to room temperature, it is unlikely that levels were severely compromised during the diapause condition

Exciting dark matter in the galactic center

We reconsider the proposal of excited dark matter (DM) as an explanation for excess 511 keV gamma rays from positrons in the galactic center. We quantitatively compute the cross section for DM annihilation to nearby excited states, mediated by exchange of a new light gauge boson with off-diagonal couplings to the DM states. In models where both excited states must be heavy enough to decay into e^+ e^- and the ground state, the predicted rate of positron production is never large enough to agree with observations, unless one makes extreme assumptions about the local circular velocity in the Milky Way, or alternatively if there exists a metastable population of DM states which can be excited through a mass gap of less than 650 keV, before decaying into electrons and positrons.Comment: Dedicated to the memory of Lev Kofman; 16 pages, 9 figures; v3 added refs, minor changes, accepted to PR